Why All Porn Sites in America Should Be Required to Have Age Verification

Every red state should follow Virginia’s lead.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 [Open in app]( or [online]() [Why All Porn Sites in America Should Be Required to Have Age Verification]( Every red state should follow Virginia’s lead. [John Hawkins]( Jul 14   [Share](   One of the things liberals tend to be phenomenal at is making incremental changes that move things in their direction. While conservatives always seem to want to win via an 80-year Hail Mary pass at the last second, liberals are the masters of the “slippery slope.” They’re always trying to get you to move an inch in their direction today, which turns into a foot tomorrow, which turns into a mile next year, which becomes a marathon in a decade or two while conservatives, who’ve been complacently sitting on the sidelines the whole time wonder how everything fell apart so “fast.” Of course, it usually wasn’t all that “fast.” Like most “overnight successes,” it was years or even decades in the making. That’s why every conservative in America should be [paying attention to a bill passed in Virginia]( because it’s a wonderful opportunity to create a “slippery slope” of our own: As of this weekend, major online pornography sites have an upgraded age verification and identification system for the state of Virginia. Recent Google Trends data offers insight into what may be attempts by some Virginians to navigate around the newly placed barriers. The bill, SB1515, requires adult sites to take further steps beyond entering a date of birth -- such as making users submit copies of government-issued IDs -- to access websites with pornographic content. First of all, in retrospect, this law seems to be long overdue. How is it that a 16-year-old isn’t supposed to watch a rated-R movie in most states without an adult, but he can look at the most perverse pornography on Earth? Hasn’t drag queens reading to kids become an incredibly controversial topic? Aren’t conservatives fighting tooth and nail to make sure kids aren’t being shown gay porn in school? Then, how does it make sense to take those positions when 12-year-olds with computer access can look at actual gangbangs at will? We certainly need a lot more research on the impact of pornography on people, but most of what’s out there suggests that it has an extremely negative impact on people, especially on kids. It’s not controversial to say this either. For example, here’s the [American College of Pediatricians on the topic]( The availability and use of pornography has become almost ubiquitous among adults and adolescents. Consumption of pornography is associated with many negative emotional, psychological, and physical health outcomes. These include increased rates of depression, anxiety, acting out and violent behavior, younger age of sexual debut, sexual promiscuity, increased risk of teen pregnancy, and a distorted view of relationships between men and women. For adults, pornography results in an increased likelihood of divorce which is also harmful to children. The American College of Pediatricians urges healthcare professionals to communicate the risks of pornography use to patients and their families and to offer resources both to protect children from viewing pornography and to treat individuals suffering from its negative effects. We could fill this whole column up with different studies and potential problems caused by pornography, but for now, let’s just accept that it’s generally unhealthy and say it’s clear that kids shouldn’t be looking at porn sites. That’s not a controversial thing to say at all. In fact, the [limited amount of national polling out there on this topic]( would seem to indicate that requiring porn sites to ask for ID is an INCREDIBLY POPULAR position nationwide: "(A) recent poll commissioned by my organization, the American Principles Project, shows the policy is popular with Americans on the whole, as well. Across 7,000 voters in 10 states, 82 percent said they support requiring by law that online porn distributors verify the age of their users. This includes overwhelming majorities across every economic, ethnic, political and ideological subgroup we polled." Is this an issue that conservatives should feel extremely comfortable running on in elections across the country? Absolutely. It also fits in extremely well with the rest of the agenda conservatives have begun to adopt around protecting kids from adult themes and gender confusion. Furthermore, it also seems highly likely that there is some correlation between liberalism and the consumption of pornography. Just think about it. Pornography is correlated with mental disorders, increased risk of teen pregnancy, increased risk of divorce, and general deviancy, all of which also happen to be correlated with liberalism. There is at least [some data to back this up]( The researchers at the University of Western Ontario in London and Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, mined the responses of 25,646 U.S. adults (11,658 men, 13,988 women) from the General Social Survey (GSS), the largest ongoing study of Americans’ attitudes and behavior. Overall, the GSS data show that increasing religiosity—prayer, church attendance, and self-identification as religious—is significantly associated with social and sexual conservatism: hostility to abortion and opposition to women working outside the home and holding positions of power. But after controlling for age, education, and other demographic variables, religious respondents who admitted viewing pornography expressed more liberal social and sexual attitudes—greater support for abortion and women holding jobs and positions of power. ...Other studies support this association: • Indiana University researchers surveyed sex and gender attitudes in a large group of young adults, students, and non-students, and then showed them one hour of pornography a week for six weeks. Afterward, the participants expressed greater support for premarital and casual sex and more egalitarian attitudes toward women. • University of Oklahoma researchers compiled data from 2,610 respondents to the Portraits of American Life Study. Among those calling themselves religious, increasing porn viewing was associated with decreasing religiosity. In other words, if you are a conservative, it is in your interest to have not just fewer kids, but fewer adults watching pornography. Could we ban pornography entirely? 75 years ago? Maybe. But today? Even setting aside the potential free speech issues, we would probably have a very tough time making a case to the American public that adults shouldn’t be allowed to make their own decisions about whether to look at pornography. However, this brings up a point I’ve touched on before. Pornography has been around since the first time a caveman drew a woman with big boobs on a cave wall, so why has it become so prevalent and ever-present today? Part of it is because the technology has gotten better, but it’s also because “shame” has been removed from the equation. For example, let me give you a personal example. Long ago in my twenties, I remember going to a sex shop to get porno mags. I had never been to one before and I felt embarrassed, like every eye in the building was on me when I walked in. I looked around, picked out a few nudie magazines (which was what I came for), and then, UGH, I had to take them up to a human being at the counter and pay for them. I did not want to meet her eye. I felt embarrassed and I could not wait to pay for Hustler, Busty Asian Hoes (I don’t remember exactly what it was, lol), and another couple of mags and get the hell out of there. After a few weeks, I felt bad about looking at that trash and threw it out and I never went back. Over time, with repeated trips, could I have gotten over my sense of shame? Sure, but I didn’t go that route and that was a good thing. Do you know what asking people to sign up for these porn sites today does? It doesn’t fully replicate that experience, but it does help bring back that sense of shame for people. Instead of just feeling like another unidentifiable, anonymous user, people will need to create an email, maybe purchase a VPN, sign up on each porn site, come up with a nickname, receive emails from the site, etc., etc. For a lot of people, this will bring up emotions, make them ask hard questions about themselves, and discourage them from going through with it. It’s what former Obama administration alumni Cass Sunstein would have called a “[nudge]( Nudge Theory is based upon the idea that by shaping the environment, also known as the choice architecture, one can influence the likelihood that one option is chosen over another by individuals. A key factor of Nudge Theory is the ability for an individual to maintain freedom of choice and to feel in control of the decisions they make. If you still don’t get how “nudges” work, think of the difference between having someone “opt-in” or “opt-out.” You still have the choice, but the way you set up the choice has an enormous impact on which way people choose to go in. Think of this as a “nudge” that helps us protect kids and is likely to move our country in a direction that is both good for our society, the red states we live in, AND for conservatives in general. It’s not the last thing we’re going to do. It’s not ultimately where we want to end the process, but it’s creating a slippery slope that goes to the Right for once. Win small today, win big tomorrow. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Upgrade to paid]( [Share]( [Leave a comment]( [101 Things All Young Adults Should Know](   [Like]( [Comment]( [Restack](   © 2023 John Hawkins 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 [Unsubscribe]() [Get the app]( writing]()